East Of England International Appoints New Ceo

Sir Robin Young, Chairman of East of England International (EEI), the region’s official international business support organisation, has announced the appointment of David Riches as EEI’s new CEO. David Riches has an enviable track record in global strategy and corporate development with a strong international trade and investment focus. He is currently Director, North America and member of the Executive Team for Think London, the foreign direct investment agency for London.Previous positions have included Director, Strategy & Corporate Development with Cable & Wireless plc and Strategy Consultant for Ernst & Young Management Consulting.David lives in the East of England, in St Albans, and attended one of the region's universities, gaining an MBA at Cranfield School of Management in 1997. He has a first class honours degree in politics and East Asian studies and learnt Mandarin Chinese at university in Taiwan. David will take up his post within 3 months, at a date to be decided. Meanwhile Sir Robin has appointed Janis Cammell OBE as Acting CEO. Until recently, Janis was Head of Policy, Co-ordination and Regional Unit of the Inward Investment Group of UK Trade & Investment. She was awarded an OBE for her outstanding personal contribution to the promotion of foreign direct investment into the UK. She has recently worked as a consultant to Essex County Council on Inward Investment.

Sir Robin said: "It is a great pleasure to welcome David to EEI. He was the best of a strong field of candidates and brings a huge wealth of skills and experience to the role, from which the organisation will benefit greatly. We are also very fortunate to have Janis as Acting CEO until David can take up his post. This puts EEI in a strong position to continue our important work in encouraging and helping the region's businesses to export, expand and in attracting valuable inward investment here from overseas."

David Riches added: "I am delighted to have been chosen for this exciting position. The East of England goes from strength to strength with a reputation for world-leading ideas and innovation. I am looking forward to building on thesignificant success already achieved. It will also be exciting to work with the highly professional and talented EEI team."

David Riches replaces James Gray as CEO who has left to become Executive Director Business Development at the Economic Development Board of Bahrain.